Presumably this is the largest, if the not first order to be transacted in this way by Dell, which had previously claimed to be done with "cutting out the middleman".

Customers in the US can sign up for a wallet from Coinbase, a Bitcoin processing player, and Dell is waving a 10 per cent discount on any Alienware systems - up to $150 - to anyone paying in this way.

A Dell spokeswoman told us the company will ascertain demand in the US tests before expanding into other territories.

“We’re piloting Bitcoin, the world’s most widely used digital currency, as a purchase option on dell.com for consumer and small business shoppers in the US only at this time.

“We will be gauging customer demand during the US pilot and make decisions about expansion to other countries at that time,” she added.

If Dell is going to take this trial beyond the novelty factor, it has a need to secure the cryptocurrency, and last week researchers from Dell SecureWorks identified an exploit that can be used to pinch Bitties.

The boffs found that by broadcasting malicious network routes via Border Gateway Protocol to hijack networks belonging to numerous hosting firms including Amazon Digital Ocean, they could redirect traffic from legit currency-mining servers on one network to bogus servers on another.

So if the digi-dosh trial takes off, Dell has a vested interest in both sides of the, er, Bitcoin. ®